The causes of wars, the situations they create as they unfold as well as in their aftermath, and the human lives upended by sometimes far-off conflicts are at the heart of the 11th edition of War on Screen, the only film festival to reflect upon conflicts and their consequences, which was opened yesterday by Thomas Cailley’s Cannes attraction The Animal Kingdom [+lee también:
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entrevista: Thomas Cailley
ficha de la película]. Upwards of 100 feature films and short films of all genres and from all corners of the globe are set to be presented in Châlons-en-Champagne until 8 October.

Ten feature film are battling it out in competition: Lost Country [+lee también:
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entrevista: Vladimir Perišić
ficha de la película] by Serbia’s Vladimir Perišić (discovered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week), The Last Men by French director David Oelhoffen, two films well-received in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section (the award-winning work The Buriti Flower [+lee también:
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entrevista: João Salaviza y Renée Nade…
ficha de la película] by Portugal’s João Salaviza and Brazil’s Renée Nader Messora, and Goodbye Julia [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mohamed Kordofani
ficha de la película] by Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofoni), The Vanishing Soldier [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Israel’s Dani Rosenberg (unveiled in competition in Locarno), the documentaries In the Rearview [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Poland’s Maciek Hamela (unveiled in Cannes’ ACID line-up and victorious in Sheffield) and Facing Darkness [+lee también:
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entrevista: Jean-Gabriel Périot
ficha de la película] by France’s Jean-Gabriel Périot (presented in Karlovy Vary), The Burdened by Yemeni director Amr Gamal (unveiled in the Berlinale’s Panorama section) and two films from the Sundance Film Festival (US production Fremont by Babak Jalal and Heroic [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Mexico’s David Zonana). The line-up will be assessed by a jury including Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi (whose movie The Siren [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] is due to be screened), her Ukrainian and Norwegian counterparts Daria Onyshchenko and Birgitte Sigmundstad, French actor Stefan Crepon and his compatriot screenwriter Olivier Lorelle.

Also worth a mention, screening out of competition, is Cannes’ Grand Prize winner The Zone of Interest [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Jonathan Glazer and fellow Croisette competitors Four Daughters [+lee también:
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entrevista: Kaouther Ben Hania
ficha de la película] by Kaouther Ben Hania and The Old Oak [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Ken Loach (which is set to close the festival), Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animated movie They Shot the Piano Player [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], Luise by Matthias Luthardt, Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous [+lee también:
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entrevista: Wissam Charaf
ficha de la película] by Wissam Charaf, Nezouh [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Soudade Kaadan and the documentaries Polanski, Horowitz. Hometown [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Mateusz Kudla and Anna Kokoszka-Romer, homing in on Roman Polanski, and Wim Wenders’ Anselm [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], about the artist Anselm Kiefer.

War On Screen’s guest of honour this year is German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff (who’ll be delivering a masterclass on 5 October and who’ll see four of his films screened), and is also offering up a variety of Focus sessions, namely "The natural environment, paradox and urgent matters #2: Civil nuclear energy, a weapon of war?" (notably involving films by Rebecca Zlotowski, Nikolaus Geyrhalter and Michael Mann), "From Lincoln to the present day: A history of the USA through the lens of cinema" (screening seven films, including I Am Not Your Negro [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Raoul Peck) and "Italian comedy goes to war: An irresistible antidote".